If you want to finish grad school and enter the workforce as quickly as possible, a one-year master’s degree might be the right fit for you. While these intensive degrees can be more rigorous than traditional programs due to their accelerated timelines, you may see a faster return on your investment by studying for a year and immediately finding a job in your field.
However, not all one-year master’s programs are created equal, as the quick pace can occasionally affect their quality. As such, it’s important to research carefully and choose the right program for you.
To that end, we’ve ranked the top one-year online master’s programs in high-impact fields. Read on to learn more.
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Forbes Advisor’s education editors are committed to producing unbiased rankings and informative articles covering online colleges, tech bootcamps and career paths. Our ranking methodologies use data from the National Center for Education Statistics, education providers, and reputable educational and professional organizations. An advisory board of educators and other subject matter experts reviews and verifies our content to bring you trustworthy, up-to-date information. Advertisers do not influence our rankings or editorial content.
Over 3,868 accredited, nonprofit colleges and universities analyzed nationwide52 reputable tech bootcamp providers evaluated for our rankingsAll content is fact-checked and updated on an annual basisRankings undergo five rounds of fact-checkingOnly 7.12% of all colleges, universities and bootcamp providers we consider are awardedOur MethodologyWe ranked 1,764 accredited, nonprofit colleges offering online master’s degree programs in the U.S. using 15 data points in the categories of credibility, affordability, student outcomes, student experience and application process. We pulled data for these categories from reliable resources such as the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System; private, third-party data sources; and individual school and program websites. Data is accurate as of February 2024. We scored schools based on the following metrics: Student Outcomes:
Overall graduation rateMedian earnings 10 years after graduationAffordability:
In-state graduate student tuition and feesAlternative tuition plans offeredMedian federal student loan debtStudent loan default rateStudent Experience:
Student-to-faculty ratioSocioeconomic diversityAvailability of online courseworkTotal number of graduate assistantsProportion of graduate students enrolled in at least some distance educationCredibility:
Fully accreditedProgrammatic accreditation statusNonprofit statusApplication Process:
Acceptance rateWe chose the 10 best schools to display based on those receiving a curved final score of 94% or higher. All schools on our final list offer at least one fully online one-year master’s program. Find our full list of methodologies here.